August 2012 – That's Just Me

Project Food Budget / My Healthy Food Budget: Aug Month 10 / Week 4

Project Food Budget Weekly total: $86.95
Month End total: $404.71

My healthy budget goal is to eat seasonal (local if possible,) home-cooked meals while sticking to a $400 monthly budget for all food including groceries, dining out, entertaining, vitamins/supplements, and gardening.

There’s two of us eating (mostly) 3 meals per day. My husband occasionally eats take-out lunch at work, & that $ comes out of his personal cash stash.

August – Month Ten, Week Four – End of Month

This week, I spent $86.95, for a monthly grand total of $404.71 for August.

Dining Out: $8.51
Entertaining: $15.18
Groceries: $63.26

Month End Details:

Dining Out: $55.99
Entertaining: $51.05
Groceries: $297.67

Even though I’m a tad over this month, I’m quite pleased. There was $50 in entertaining expense, so taking that into consideration, my budgeting was excellent!

Plus, I spent $30 for 50 lbs of tomatoes. Yes, even though I’m growing loads of tomatoes, I truly don’t think there is ever enough!

I’m canning, oven-drying (dehydrating), and freezing (raw & cooked); I still think that I’ll have to eventually purchase commercially canned tomatoes but I’m hopeful I can hold off for many months!

Spending Details

Market Basket $7.38: lemon juice, bananas, 5lb sugar (yes, sugar!), kosher salt

Local Farmstand $8.07: Peaches, carrots, carmen peppers, lettuce

Hannaford Grocery $5.49: Wine (sale) and bananas

Wilson Farm $42.32 (large farm store): Bargain! 50 lbs of 2nds tomatoes ($30), dozen corn, zucchini, bell pepper, scallions, parsley, green beans, peaches

Week of Meals

Thursday: Baked casserole with eggs, brown rice, cheddar, garden eggplant, celery, scallions, garden tomatoes, garden beet greens
Friday: Leftover baked egg rice casserole from last night
Saturday: Family party for lunch, pizza for dinner
Sunday: Pasta with sauce of tomatoes, garden eggplant, celery, bell peppers, garden jalapeno
Monday: leftover frozen takeout Chinese food
Tuesday: Bread pizza with leftover sauce and cheddar cheese
Wednesday: Pasta with garden eggplant, tomatoes, roasted tomatoes, scallions, green beans, & parsley

Want to Join the Project Food Budget?

project food budget

It’s never too late to join the Project Food Budget!

If you’d like to participate, get the details and let Emily know you’re on board!

Here’s who else is budgeting this week:

Gardening Diary: True Vine Ripened Tomatoes

Having a garden really opens your eyes to how produce naturally grows, and it’s a lot different than what’s found at the store.

Grocery stores offer “vine-ripened” tomatoes, but as I recently learned, even those are not truly ripened while attached to the tomato plant. The branch is cut, but the tomatoes are still attached to the “vine” so they can market them as such. They are then ripened by ethylene gas, as it travels across country.

As my tomatoes are growing and ripening, I’ve noticed that the fruit that is closest to the main branch will ripen first, then ripen outward toward the end of the row.

tomatoes ripen naturally on the vine

This morning, as I was harvesting my tomatoes, I got to thinking about the perfectly-colored-red ripened tomatoes on the vine at the grocery stores (like the “grape” variety) and how unnatural it is to have the whole vine ripened at the same time.

At least that’s not how it happens in my natural backyard garden!

Gardening Diary: Preserving Tomatoes by Freezing, Oven Drying & Canning

cherry tomatoes ripening on the vine

My garden will never produce as many tomatoes as I’d like…even though I’m getting full bowlfuls every couple of days, it is never enough! Tomatoes are the perfect food. I adore them!

I’d love to someday grow enough tomatoes so I’d never have to purchase another can/carton of commercial tomatoes again, but that is not a reality this year, but I’m trying to make the best of what I have.

So, I have been learning about the many ways to preserve fresh garden produce for consumption in colder months.

I’ve made a lot of tomato sauce, sometimes with eggplant and peppers. I’m slow-cooking in the oven or in my crock pot. Then storing in freezer bags in my freezer.

I tried something new the other day and I think it’s going to be a favorite.

I was watching the Dehydration class over at breadbeckers.com and it inspired me to learn more about dehydration in the oven. I was thrilled to find out that my oven offers very low temperatures, as low as 100° so I experimented with a batch of cherry tomatoes.

sliced cherry tomatoes before oven drying

It took over 24 hours, experimenting with different temperatures (135-150°) depending on the time of day – it’s helpful if you use an oven thermometer to make sure oven temps aren’t off. The tomatoes dried to little jewels of sugary-flavorful-goodness!

oven dried cherry tomatoes

oven dried cherry tomatoes - close up

Then I spread them on a large plate, and flash-froze them, then bagged them in a quart freezer bag for freezer storage. I know it could be possible to maybe store in a jar, or in olive oil, but I figure that the freezer would be the safest method for now.

I finished drying a second batch yesterday morning, and they went into the freezer as well.

Next, I’m going to try some good ole fashioned canning! I haven’t decided if I’ll do a raw-pack or maybe stewed. I suppose I could try both!

I know I will not have enough of my own tomatoes, so I might be buying some “seconds” tomatoes at the local farm. One farm is selling 7 lbs for $5.99 while supplies last.

I’ve been pouring over canning cookbooks for the last week or so, trying to learn all I can (haha, no pun intended) and I hope that I love canning enough to keep doing it all year long. I have dreams of applesauce in the fall, and orange jam in the winter.

Exciting!

Project Food Budget / My Healthy Food Budget: Aug Month 10 / Week 3

Project Food Budget Weekly total: $99.50

There’s two of us eating (mostly) 3 meals per day. My husband occasionally eats take-out lunch at work, & that $ comes out of his personal cash stash.

August – Month Ten, Week Three

This week, I spent $99.50, with a monthly total of $317.76. That leaves $82.24 for the rest of August.

Dining Out: $29.46
Groceries: $70.04

I was a little lazy this week regarding dining out. Twice in one week, which is unusual for us; In reality, we actually spent $60 for dining out, but I offset a portion of the expense with some extra cash we received, so my budget wasn’t affected too badly. The positive spin is we each had leftovers that I put in the freezer for next week when I’m feeling “lazy” again!

Speaking of NOT being lazy, I am getting ready for my first “canning” adventure. (Canning supplies are NOT included in my food budget.)

I already have a case of regular pint jars from Amazon ($16), but picked up 3 more cases from the local True Value store: regular pints ($7), wide-mouth pints ($8) and regular quarts ($8) along with 2 cases of regular lids ($1.29ea) – great prices, and a lesson learned to wait for sales when buying canning jars and lids! The sales associate talked me into getting the wide mouth pints, stating I could return them at any time if I found that I didn’t need them. But they will be good to have on hand.

I also am expecting the $20 Progressive International Canning Essentials Kit to arrive on Monday from Amazon.

I decided to go with a higher quality canning kit, instead of one of the cheaper alternatives because the plastic looks more durable and heat-proof and the lifter seems a lot easier to use.

I considered the Kuchenprofi 18/10 Stainless Steel Funnel but I wanted to make sure that canning wasn’t just a faze for me. It’s still in my shopping cart, so if I need to upgrade, I’ll buy it later.

Grocery Spending Details

Market Basket $16.54: Watermelon, bag o’ California Hass avocados, bananas, So Delicious coconut milk, Applegate Farms chicken deli meat, premade Greek pasta (I was hungry for lunch, grrr)

Meat CSA $13.09: Baby back ribs (Luckily, products from the Meat CSA are paid in full, so technically no real money is actually spent, but I apply the cost to my budget as we consume it.)

Boston Hill Farm $11.05: Found a new (to me) farm, they are also at the Andover Farmer’s Market. Definitely would purchase from them again! Dozen corn, green bell pepper, onions, peaches & nectarines

Whole Foods Market $25.86: So Delicious coconut milk (sale), Big tub o’ salted cashews grown in USA (sale), 12 pack Organic Valley 1% milk (sale), Kerrygold cheddar (sale w/ coupon), Galia melon (sale)

Ocean State Job Lots $3.50: (2) Dececco pastas

Week of Meals

Thursday: Baked egg casserole with quinoa, garden beet greens, garden eggplant, & scallions
Friday: Pork baby back ribs, corn on cob, and salad with raw garden cabbage, garden tomatoes, & garden cukes
Saturday: Dining out
Sunday: Garden tomato sauce with garden eggplant, onions, celery, pepper, and garden jalapeño over pasta
Monday: Leftover eye round beef & veggie stir fry (celery, scallions, garden eggplant, garden cabbage, garden beets, garden beet greens) over bulgur
Tuesday: Dining out – AGAIN! But the good thing is we each have a meal of leftovers stored in the freezer.
Wednesday: Bread pizzas and veggie salad

Want to Join the Project Food Budget?

project food budget

It’s never too late to join the Project Food Budget!

If you’d like to participate, get the details and let Emily know you’re on board!

Here’s who else is budgeting this week:

What? Quack Dr. Mercola Donates $800,000 to Benefit Prop 37 GMO Labeling

I was just reading the article over at Cornucopia about big food companies hiding behind the seemingly little organic food companies, while donating hundreds of thousands (and millions) to shut down Prop 37 in California, which would require all food labels to list if the ingredients are GMO (genetically modified).

So, as I’m reading, I’m shocked to learn that Dr Mercola from DrMercola.com donated a whopping $800,000.00 in favor of the new law.

What? Wow!

How much money does this swindling health-nut actually make, that he’s able to give almost a million away to the cause! It’s sad that he’s been profiting THAT much while taking advantage of so many vulnerable people.

I hope that Dr Mercola’s contributions to Prop 37, does not give him any legitimacy; it would be a horrible circumstance if he profits more from this exposure. Or maybe that is what he’s looking for! Hmm.

But on the other hand, I hope his association with Prop 37 doesn’t disgrace the blessing that this law could bring us. After all, if GMO labeling is required in California, then every other state would benefit!

Unethical! Free Brown Cow Yogurt Coupon if You Write Product Review

And this is an example of why I don’t trust “little” food companies owned by “BIG” food companies!

I just received an email from Brown Cow (lately they’ve been promoting the heck out of their new Greek yogurts) and was surprised that their new marketing scheme is bribing their customers to write good reviews for them!

Dear Brown Cow fans,

We’re so excited about our new Cream Top Greek yogurt, we want to share it with the world – and we need your help.

First, we’ll be hosting free sampling events at virtually every Whole Foods Market in the country beginning this Saturday, August 18th, as well as most California Safeways. And we’ll keep them going later this fall at other natural foods stores – so keep your eyes peeled.

Second, we created a place for you to share your thoughts about our new Cream Top Greek with the world- and when you do, we’ll send you a coupon for a free cup.

Get your free cup at www.browncowlove.com. Write a quick review, share it, and get a coupon for an absolutely free cup (limit: first 2,500 people to enter). You can also enter to win free Brown Cow yogurt for a year – not a bad deal!

– From the folks at Brown Cow Yogurt

I’m curious as to what happens when the 2500 coupons are gone; will they inform the customer BEFORE they write their review, or will they break the news that they’re getting the shaft, after the review has been sent?

I took a quick look at the process, and first, you must “like” their Facebook page, then you write your review, send it with an option to also share it on your personal Facebook wall for bonus entry (which didn’t matter, because even when I declined to share, it still posted to my wall, sneaky! sneaky!) and finally you need to give them your email, name, address for the coupon, etc. Blah! I didn’t get that far!

And look, they even give you a hint, just in case you’re stumped & don’t know what to write (“Mmmm so thick and rich and I got a coupon for a free cup in exchange for sharing my review – check it out”)

Notice they've given you a hint on the positive things to say!

Social Media Marketing is the New Black

I know, I know, it’s common practice for social media to play a huge part in business today, and I’m not complaining about using Facebook for marketing means.

I personally find it appalling that they’ve resorted to begging for POSITIVE reviews with a promise of a coupon for a free cup of their new yogurt.

It is unethical and a screams of desperation, but we, as consumers, are allowing it to happen!

Seriously, people will do anything for a free product. They don’t care if the company they’re supporting lacks marketing principles, just “give me a free yogurt please!” Ugh!

When will consumers learn that saving a couple of dollars isn’t worth the decline of our country’s business morals. Stand up and refuse to support companies like this!

No Need to Beg

Brown Cow could have easily given out 2500 free coupons in exchange for “liking” their Facebook page.

People create a natural “buzz” about a product, sharing links to free stuff like this on their own FB walls. Why force customers to leave a pitiful “review” about a product? If the product is good, people will talk about it instinctively.

As far as I’m concerned, Brown Cow Yogurt has lost me as a customer. It’s a shame, because I really liked their cream-top yogurts, but for now, I’m will not support them.

(Note: Brown Cow is owned by Stonybrook Yogurt, which is owned by Dannon – Brown Cow is not the small, sweet dairy farm that they’d like you to believe.)

UPDATE 2012-08-22: Received an email from Brown Cow regarding my post

Hi Debbie,

Thanks for voicing your thoughts. We welcome feedback here at Brown Cow (yes, even including criticism, as much as it can hurt sometimes!) because it helps us do our jobs better — that is, to make the best yogurt we can and get it to as many people as we can.

We really love this new Cream Top Greek Yogurt and we’ve been getting great response from yogurt-lovers everywhere so we wanted to give fans a space to share their passionate feedback. We welcome any review, however — not just positive reviews — so long as they aren’t obscene. On the site, we also encourage users to include in their review the fact that they are getting a free cup, in the name of full transparency.

And to answer your question — within a day or so of giving out the last coupons, we’ll switch-up the site so it makes it clear the coupons are gone but you can still leave a review to be entered into the grand prize – which is a year’s worth of free yogurt.

We’re a mission-driven company, which is why we use American Humane Certified milk from local farms, why we make our yogurt in small, less processed batches, and why we use only natural ingredients like pure maple syrup and wildflower honey. We do our best to extend these principles to everything we do, and we made a point of doing that here too.

We’re sorry to hear that you think we fell short in this case, but hopefully this note helps add a bit of background and context to our thinking here — and we’ll certainly take your feedback into account as we plan for our promotional efforts in the future.

Thanks,

Hmm, that’s skirting around the issue a little bit, huh? Just a lot of Big Food marketing babble.

My point, which I don’t think they “got”, was that they were basically paying for reviews.

They’re trying to make it sound like their customers needed a “forum” for their passionate feedback….and THAT’S why they started the promotion. Uh, do they really think they would have got all those “passionate” reviews if they weren’t offering a free cup of yogurt in exchange?

And regarding the review form – “within a day or so of giving out the last coupons” they’ll make it known that the coupons are exhausted. So, for that “day or so” people are still leaving reviews thinking they are still getting their free sample. Do they think that those few hundred people are going to settle quietly and not cause a huge fuss over being too late? No way.

As for their American Humane Certified claim, I have to do more research, but since Eggland’s Best eggs are certified as well, I’m not sure how much credence I put into this organization.

I’ve been learning about making my own yogurt at home, & I think it’s definitely time to try!

Project Food Budget / My Healthy Food Budget: Aug Month 10 / Week 2

Project Food Budget Weekly total: $68.76

There’s two of us eating (mostly) 3 meals per day. My husband occasionally eats take-out lunch at work, & that $ comes out of his personal cash stash.

August – Month Ten, Week Two

This week, I spent $68.76, with a monthly total of $218.26. That leaves $181.74 for the rest of August.

Dining Out: $18.02
Groceries: $50.74

This was a good week!

I’m excited that our vegetable garden is really working.

Crazy amounts of eggplant and tomatoes, with fresh oregano, basil, and an occasional jalapeno pepper make a great slow-baked sauce to freeze for consumption during colder months! Pickling cukes are yummy for my lunch and for homemade pickles! I’ve picked a couple of my red cabbages too.

Next year, I will try to weigh all my harvests, but for now I’m taking photos, for keeping track, but I have no doubt that my garden is helping us save a ton on our budget!

For one example, I’ve been checking prices, and a 1/2 pint of sungold tomatoes are selling for $5 at the local farm store. I’ve been harvesting at least 1/2 pint+ every other day! What a savings! That’s not even including the red cherry tomatoes or my large beefy tomatoes!

Spending Details

Meat CSA $15.88: Eye round roast (Luckily, products from the Meat CSA are paid in full, so technically no real money is actually spent, but I apply the cost to my budget as we consume it.)

Local Farmstand $8.00: 2 dozen jumbo eggs & bell boppers

Wilson Farm (local large farm store) $8.12: Dozen corn on the cob, 2 large bunches of scallions, leeks, green beans

Trader Joes $18.74: (2) bags o’ peanuts, pecans, feta cheese, quart of whole milk, organic raisins

Week of Meals

Thursday: Eye round beef with corn on cob
Friday: Eye round beef tossed in with garden tomatoes, garden eggplant, celery, peppers over grains
Saturday: Birthday party
Sunday: Oven roasted garden tomatoes, garden eggplants, dads garden bell pepper over pasta
Monday: Soup with leftover frozen eye roast, green beans, leeks, garden cabbage, garden tomatoes, garden jalapeño pepper in homemade veg stock over brown rice
Tuesday: Leftover soup with leftover frozen hotdogs sandwich
Wednesday: Homemade pizza on BBQ grill with feta, garden tomatoes, & garden basil

Want to Join the Project Food Budget?

project food budget

It’s never too late to join the Project Food Budget!

If you’d like to participate, get the details and let Emily know you’re on board!

Here’s who else is budgeting this week:

Watermelon – Too Early

Well, I thought the “signs” were all there to harvest our first watermelon.

It sounded hollow when thumped, the bottom was bright yellow, the “vine/tendril” looked like it was drying.

So we harvested Tuesday, and sliced it in half on Wednesday night. OOps, it was still pretty white inside, but surprisingly it was still fairly tasty; I ate it for my TV snack. LOL

Lesson learned, we’ll wait until the end of the month before harvesting any more watermelons!

Project Food Budget / My Healthy Food Budget: Aug Month 10 / Week 1

Project Food Budget Weekly total: $149.50

There’s two of us eating (mostly) 3 meals per day. My husband occasionally eats take-out lunch at work, & that $ comes out of his personal cash stash.

Aug – Month Ten, Week One

This week, I spent $149.50. That leaves $250.50 for the rest of August.

The first week is always a bit higher. I needed some basic pantry items from iHerb.com. Love that store!!! We also hosted a big pot luck party for DH’s previous co-workers. Fun!

I have high hopes that it’ll be a good budgeting month.

My veggie garden is starting to REALLY payoff, I feel so sustainable! hehee Between the tomatoes, pickling cukes, beets, and eggplant, I yielded my first red cabbage! Exciting! I hope I can keep growing well into the cooler months!

Entertaining: $35.87 – bbq potluck party at our house
Groceries: $104.17

Spending Details

iHerb.com $39.71: Bob’s Red Mill 7 grain hot cereal, Frontier organic dried rosemary, (2) Bob’s Red Mill whole wheat flours, Lundberg short grain brown rice, California Olive Ranch Arbosana oil, and Simply Organic Madagascar vanilla extract

Whole Foods Market $26.11: Bragg’s organic apple cider vinegar, organic plain yogurt, organic half & half, canned organic tomatoes, organic fruit spread, Jarslberg cheese, organic champagne grapes, cantaloupe, organic bananas, and organic celery

Meat CSA $11.96: Center cut pork chops (Luckily, products from the Meat CSA are paid in full, so technically no real money is actually spent, but I apply the cost to my budget as we consume it.)

Local Farmstand $10.07: blueberries, yellow squash, & peaches

Market Basket $11.29: (3) jars salsa, King Arthur white flour

Whole Foods Market (2nd trip) $9.46: Organic champagne grapes, local peaches, organic bananas, and cantaloupe

Week of Meals

Wednesday: BBQ pork chops with leftover brown rice topped with sautéed garden tomatoes, spring onion, celery & garden eggplant
Thursday: Late lunch at parents. DH had toast broiled with swiss & tomatoes
Friday: Stir fry with garden eggplant, garden cabbage, garden tomatoes, scallions, garden beet greens, celery, summer squash over barley topped with fried egg
Saturday: BBQ pot luck at our house
Sunday: Sautéed garden tomatoes, garden eggplant, celery, scallions, & garden cabbage over brown rice
Monday: Garden potatoes, onions, garden beets topped with fried eggs & salsa
Tuesday: Homemade flatbread pizza with swiss, salsa, garden tomatoes & homemade pickled onions
Wednesday: Leftover frozen hotdog sandwiches with homemade pickled cukes & onions, with a side of sautéed garden eggplant, bell pepper, scallions, celery

Want to Join the Project Food Budget?

project food budget

It’s never too late to join the Project Food Budget!

If you’d like to participate, get the details and let Emily know you’re on board!

Here’s who else is budgeting this week:

Project Food Budget / My Healthy Budget: July Month 9 End of Month

Project Food Budget Weekly total: $37.42 Monthly total: $417.39

There’s two of us eating (mostly) 3 meals per day. My husband occasionally eats take-out lunch at work, & that $ comes out of his personal cash stash.

July – Month Nine, Week Five – End of Month

This week, I spent $37.42, ending the month with a grand total of $417.39.

I won’t squawk about the extra $17.39 I spent!

My week (on Thurs) started with very good intentions, and then DH told me the farm was out of jumbo eggs. Sooo instead of replanning, I caved & my budget of $20 was blown to smithereens with a $17 take out purchase!

But I recovered by using a local farm store’s Groupon coupon that I was saving for August! Whoo hoo! $30 in groceries for only $15.29.

And then Saturday, we splurged on two Friendly’s 3-scoop sundaes. I had a BOGO coupon that I couldn’t resist using! Hey, it was only $5 for both, so bargain!

Dining Out: $22.13
Groceries: $15.29

Monthly Totals:

Dining Out: $99.07
Groceries: $318.32

Spending Details

Wilson Farm (large local farm store) $15.29: pint of local blueberries, local summer squash, local spring onions, NJ (not organic) peaches, local green beans, dozen local corn, local scallions, (2) dozen jumbo local eggs, bananas, and local half & half – used my $30 groupon!

How it Breaks Down by Store

(Groceries & Entertaining Costs Only)

Whole Foods $95.30 (30%)
Market Basket $55.70 (18%)
Trader Joe’s $48.23 (15%)
Meat CSA $35.58 (11%)
Wilmington Farmers Market $27 (8%)
Farm Stand $18.27 (6%)
Seven Acres Farm $17.50 (6%)
Wilson Farm $15.29 (5%)
Amazon.com $5.45 (2%)

Week of Meals

Thursday: Take out
Friday: A Feast: corn on cob, sauteed green beans, eggplant & scallions topped with fried eggs & salsa
Saturday: Soup with homemade beef & veg stock with fresh summer squash, eggplant, & green beans served over tiny pasta
Sunday: Whole grain coconut caraway pancakes
Monday: Turkey bacon stir fry with green beans, garden eggplant, garden beets & greens, yellow squash over brown rice
Tuesday: Leftover freezer beefalo tomato pepper sauce with pasta

Want to Join the Project Food Budget?

project food budget

It’s never too late to join the Project Food Budget!

If you’d like to participate, get the details and let Emily know you’re on board!

Here’s who else is budgeting this week: